Milla walks the reader through her experience of Auroville’s forests, the Forest Group, and fungi as a keystone species.
Growing up in Auroville
Auroville Witness: How would you characterize growing up in Auroville?
Milla: From what I remember as a child there was a lot of freedom and play. I felt very alive and curious. The environment around me allowed me to explore. We lived in Certitude, a community that has a sports ground. Every day I would go by myself, or with my sister, and play for hours. I often get reminded of how, as a 6-year-old, or even younger, I walked to the main road and stopped passing motorbikes for a ride to Solar Kitchen! There was a lot of connection, freedom, and safety.
Nature in Auroville
It seems you were also engaged with nature in an important way as a child.
Milla: I didn’t even realize I had a connection to nature, because nature was part of my ecosystem. It was one of the places I inhabited, and one of the things that I engaged with and connected to as part of my daily life.
I didn’t live in a “forest,” like the one my grandfather took care of, but I would go visit him for walks once a week. We would be in these deep canyon structures, and he would teach us about the trees. I wouldn’t walk into forests alone as a kid, but most of Auroville felt very safe.
There was this little wild plot behind my house, a mini-forest which has gotten smaller over the years. My sister and I used to carve tunnels through the thorns and make little spaces that were our homes. Our hideouts.
Where did you do your studies?
Milla: I went to the Netherlands where I got a liberal arts and sciences degree, by then my interest was in environmental sciences. But there were limited science courses there, so when I went for a semester abroad to California I focused on environmental sciences. My Masters was in the UK.
At what point did your interest change to fungi?
Milla: Quite soon after coming back to Auroville I did an ecological horticulture course in Botanical Gardens. A large focus was flora identification but also general ecology. Towards the end of the course one of my instructors, an arboriculturist who I’m now working with, highlighted a research gap: fungal parasites in the trees of our locality. The more I started to look, the bigger the gap seemed to be, with very few fungal studies done in this ecosystem. That inspired me to create a project to explore the different mushrooms that we find in Auroville.
Tell us about the sciences in Auroville.
Milla: There are two ways to look at this. One way is science as the study of the natural world, including us, this has been embedded in practice throughout Auroville’s history, right? There’s always experimentation, having a hypothesis and seeing what works and what doesn’t. Then implementing what works. We can see that with the practice of reforestation.
Then there is the more academic rigorous practice of science, which is not a focal point in Auroville from my perspective. There are certain projects that have required that scientific rigor, for example climate change consultants, wildlife research, or the development of water filtration systems. But there’s not really an overarching body, a collaboration or fusion of that knowledge back into the community.
The forest group
In the film Ever Slow Green I learned of Auroville’s forest group. It’s been a consistent group of stewards, and doing things collectively, but also individually.
Milla: They are a group comprising the forest stewards who meet regularly. Each steward has a lot of freedom in the areas that they’re managing. The practice of managing Auroville’s forest is not that structured, which allows for a diverse set of management practices across Auroville. But I think it’s a very intentional gathering that allows sharing, supporting and some collective decision making. I do think they share their observations and practices.
But in general, in Auroville there isn’t a group comprising people who come together and share their wider ecological knowledge. We have little pockets of people doing projects. I perceive it as a gap; there is a need to bring together science in Auroville. There is work, however, being done in certain organizations, for example Pitchandikulam or Botanical Garden, but the projects in Auroville that link to science are mostly independent.
So there’s no publication, no single group publishing what’s happening in all these different sciences? Either research or practice?
Milla: SAIIER 1 publishes work on education, some of which may be scientific, but there’s no overall science or ecology publication. There have been published material in different journals by organizations like Pitchandikulam but it is not shared that widely.
Fungi as keystone species
Tell me about how fungi work, and why they are a keystone species.
Milla: Fungi are a whole kingdom of organisms but so many of them are critical for the survival of other organisms, and so many ecological systems rely on fungi. They are foundational, a lot of organisms rely on them, and they pull others together, which are key features for keystone species.
In order for trees to survive, they need fungi. Fungi are needed to create soils. A lot of animals require fungi to live. They also knit ecosystems together. They cycle nutrients that many other organisms rely on, they break down matter, and are fundamental to our whole food web. So, in a way, they might be key for certain organisms, but they’re also key for the actual systems that knit these different organisms together, that these organisms rely on.
Research in the last twenty years shows that plants established themselves five hundred million years ago thanks to fungi. Without fungi there would be no plants! And 85% of plants essentially coexist with symbiotic fungi.
Milla: You’re referring to mycorrhizal fungi. Myco stands for ‘’fungi’’ and rhiza means “root zone.” These fungi have an association with plant roots. Mycorrhizal fungi acted as plant roots prior to plants forming their own roots; they allowed the plant to absorb nutrients and water. As you said, most plants rely on this relationship. The reason plants partner with fungi is because fungal bodies (mycelium) are more efficient than roots at accessing these nutrients and water, they have finer strands. Fungi also provide protection and other other benefits, while the plants offer food to the fungi. So, plants are still dependent on these relationships.
There are two types, endomycorrhizal fungi and ectomycorrhizal fungi. Endomycorrhizal fungi, are associated with the majority of plants, produce a protein called glomalin which binds soil together, aggregates the soil. That allows water and air to filter through the larger soil particles. A lot of life needs air as well as water. And the mycelium is also food for a lot of organisms in the soil. So it’s not just the decomposer fungi (the saprobic ones) but also these mycorrhizal fungi that are really key to the forest.
Walking and looking
Tell me what it’s like when you’re walking through the forest.
Milla: There are different zones that I get into. One of them is a curious type of play. I become inquisitive and playful with things I’m looking at; I’m almost creating or forming. Sometimes I’m even anthropomorphizing nature in a way that’s playful for me. And it brings out that part of me, the awe. That is really important to cultivate in our lives, especially as we grow older. It keeps us curious.
Then there’s another zone that I can get into that does feel quite meditative. It is, as you mentioned, a focus. You go into a different space where a lot of the peripheral thoughts disappear. You have one goal, and that goal is watching and looking, and being able to focus and narrow in. It creates almost a silence around you.
I think nature, at least the ecosystem that I live in, supports that space where, even though there’s so much information around, it allows the diversity to exist while still focusing your mind and softening everything around you.
You come from a different mind space with your work.
Milla: In a way, it feels you’re really seeing things for what they are. Without your mind being able to do the categorization and identification that you would think is part of my walks. Sometimes the identification comes in when it needs to, but it can also be silenced. My understanding of reality is that Life is energy, and in a way those zones of walking tap into it a little bit. I see life in relations of energy.